INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Gerald Clark
Lyn Lifshin
Paul B. Roth
Ndue Ukaj
Anne Babson
Laszlo Slomovits
Qinqin Huang
Duane Locke
Adhar Maheshwari
Shutta Crum
Odimegwu Onwumere
Anthony Seidman
Chris Lord
Running Cub
Amit Parmessur
John F. Buckley &
Martin Otto
Joanie Freeman
Alan Britt
Jennifer Burd &
Laszlo Slomovits
Sonnet Mondal
Karyn M. Bruce
John Tustin
Jennifer Burd
Michael Gessner &
Daniel Davis
Martin Camps &
Anthony Seidman
Fred Wolven
M. J. Iuppa
John Grochalski
Catherine O'Brien
Joe Milford
Byron Matthews
Joseph Murphy
Dike Okoro
Ann Arbor Review
is an independent
International Journal & ezine
Copyright (c) 2012
Fred Wolven
All rights revert back to each poet.
--editor / Southeastern Florida
------------------------------------------------
Fred Wolven, editor
Submissions via e-mail:
ON FIRST SIGHTING A FLORIDA PANTHER
This morning heading back up the two lane
seldom used graveled barely discernable
right of way back in the undeveloped acres
of our community a panther steps out into
the pathway about 40 feet ahead of me
and upwind so he never even notices me
since my scent doesn't carry. Walking
stealthily as I often do I do not disturb
him as he saunters along ahead of me
without turning around so he thus fails
to notice me even when he turns off
heading eastward into the dense brush.
Being my first and only sighting of this
fresh leather brown wild creature, I am
at once amazed and excited realizing
this may be that singular experience
with one of the few remaining of these
beautiful but very nearly extinct cats.
I can only imagine what it must have
been like before this section was coveted
by man, civilizing it in the name of progress,
disrupting the environment for all time
to come, scaring and chasing away all forms
of natural wildlife, creatures and critters
large and small, fearless and mild, those
beings with valid claim to this soil we
trample each and every day whether for
fun, pleasure or sustenance or just to call
our own. Native Americans, those before
us, fellow humans but ones with valid
claim to and sharing this landscape with
eagle, egret, hawk, rabbit, snake, frog,
lizard, bee, and ant, ones who knew how
to live in what once was a peaceable
kingdom populated naturally and
unruffled most of the time, day or night.
If we didn't always rush in to claim and
then destroy what we have to latch onto,
we too would have a final lasting chance
to really be in sync with nature's wonders.
IT IS NOT TIME FOR CAESAR
TO MEET HIS TROUBLED END
The hawk family is back, all three, the male, female
and offspring now near full grown. And a couple
young blue herons wade the water's edge of our
small lake, while a few very tiny and very young
anhinga slide over the surface now and then
disappearing in their diving for nourishment
only to resurface fifteen to twenty feet ahead of
themselves. Since we now have some rain to help
re-supply the lake's diminished store, the lush colors
of the surrounding greenery are being
restored, and
the graveled and wild bush and brush edged trails
create a much brighter, lighter and oxygen-stocking
area for my meandering in my morning's tramping.
Further along the pathway, around the edge of the
developed yet unbuilt upon site's boundary acreage,
multiple brilliant violet and purple morning glories
sprout outward from outstretching vines covering
wild grass and weeds and climbing any skyward
projectile from lakeside clumps of untamed shrub
to small uncultivated and as yet unshaped trees
reaching toward the turning southeastern morning's
rays. Occasionally a small crane or two, too distant
to discern its kind, passes overhead just close enough
for me to hear its honking and notice its shape but
not its coloring. It is a delight to breath in fresh air
in this space so near my dwelling. I wonder just
what part of his territory my single Florida panther
is covering today. Speaking of a breath of fresh air.
And I suspect the hawk family never really left.
They too have yet undestroyed fields and woodlots
remaining to be patrolled, to be staked out for prey.
It is not time for Caesar to meet his troubled end.
The Senate is not meeting today; tomorrow is okay.
Fred Wolven, South Florida